A fundamental aspect of research in the biological and medical sciences is the measurement of the binding of one chemical entity to another chemical entity. Such measurements are usually referred to as binding assays and include the measurement of the binding of an antigen to an antibody or vice versa, the bending of one nucleic acid to another nucleic acid such as in a hybridization reaction, and the binding of a ligand such as a hormone or other effector molecule to its receptor.
There are numerous techniques available for performing binding assays with the technique employed for a particular assay usually being dictated by the types of molecules involved in the interaction. In general, however, one of the partners in the interaction is bound to a solid support such as a membrane or the walls of wells in microtitre plates. Many of the known techniques are automated and are adapted for the simultaneous assaying of multiple samples.
While known techniques permit the efficient performance of numerous assays in a given period, the techniques have limitations. The most serious limitation is that a particular technique and the apparatus associated therewith can usually only be used for a single binding assay. Many of the techniques further suffer from the complication that multiple steps are involved in which reagents have to be sequentially added and removed.
It would therefore be desirable to have available apparatus that can be used for performing a variety of binding assays—even simultaneously—under variable conditions and by which the assays can be done with avoidance of the multiplicity of steps necessary in known procedures.
The object of the invention is to provide such an apparatus and methods utilizing that apparatus.